The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1 (Rick Riordan and Jesse Bernstein) (Listening Library)
Informational Texts Informational Text Ancient World
The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History (Jane Bingham)
Greece
The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug For Troy (Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd)
Greeks Internet Linked (Illustrated World History) (Susan Peach, Anne Millard, and Ian Jackson)
You Wouldn’t Want to be a Slave in Ancient Greece!: A Life You’d Rather Not Have (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series)(Fiona MacDonald, David Salariya, and David Antram)
Rome
Romans: Internet Linked (Illustrated World History) (Anthony Marks)
You Wouldn’t Want to Live in Pompeii! A Volcanic Eruption You’d Rather Avoid (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (John Malam, David Salariya, and David Antram)
You Wouldn’t Want to be a Roman Soldier!: Barbarians You’d Rather Not Meet (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (David Stewart and David Antram)
Vikings
First Facts about the Vikings (Jacqueline Morley)
Vicious Vikings (Horrible Histories TV Tie-in) (Terry Deary and Martin Brown)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Viking Explorer!: Voyages You’d Rather Not Make (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (Andrew Langley, David Salariya, and David Antram)
Inuit-Eskimo
The Inuit (Watts Library) (Suzanne M. Williams)
Building an Igloo (Ulli Steltzer)
Latin America
Golden Tales: Myths, Legends, and Folktales from Latin America (Lulu Delacre) (Note: This title also includes folktales.)
Aztec, Inca, and Maya (DK Eyewitness Books) (Elizabeth Baquedano and Barry Clarke)
Beneath the Stone: A Mexican Zapotec Tale (Bernard Wolf)
The History Atlas of South America (MacMillan Continental History Atlases) (Edwin Early, ed.)
First Americans: Story of Where They Came From and Who They Became (Anthony F. Aveni and S.D. Nelson)
6-3 Literary Texts—Embracing Heritage Stories
One More River to Cross: The Stories of Twelve Black Americans (Scholastic Biography) (Jim Haskins) (EA)
As Long as the Rivers Flow: The Stories of Nine Native Americans (Scholastic Biography) (Paula Gunn Allen and Patricia Clark Smith)
Esperanza Rising (Pam Munoz Ryan)
Project Mulberry (Linda Sue Park)
Weedflower (Cynthia Kadohata)
Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy (Andrea Warren)
“On Discovering America” (Pearl S. Buck) (Survey Graphic Magazine)
One Eye Laughing, the Other Eye Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 (Dear America Series) (Barry Denenberg)
Something About America (Maria Testa)
Journey of the Sparrows( Fran Leeper Buss)
Behind the Mountain (First Person Fiction) (Edwidge Danticat)
An Indian in Cowboy Country: Stories from an Immigrant’s Life (Pradeep Anand)
Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts (Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack)
Leon’s Story (Leon Walter Tillage and Susan L. Roth)
Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom (Companion to The People Could Fly) (Virginia Hamilton and Leo and Diane Dillon)
Asia
Samurai: Warlords of Japan (High Interest Books) (Arlan Dean)
Life in Ancient Japan (Peoples of the Ancient World) (Hazel Richardson)
Text about the Cultural Revolution (forthcoming)
Shipwrecks
A Night to Remember: A Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic (Walter Lord) (E)
You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Titanic!: One Voyage You'd Rather Not Make (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (David Evelyn Stewart, David Salariya, and David Antram)
Exploring the Titanic: How the Greatest Ship Ever Lost—Was Found (Robert D. Ballard)
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance (Jennifer Armstrong)
Child Labor
Kids On Strike! (Susan Campbell Bartoletti)
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor (Russell Freedman and Lewis Hine) (EA)
Informational Text (Read Aloud)
Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America (Deborah Hopkinson)
Stories
- "Eleven" (Sandra Cisneros) (E)
- Peter Pan(J.M. Barrie)
- Peter and the Starcatchers (Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, and Greg Call) *
- Peter and the Shadow Thieves (Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, and Greg Call) *
- When I Was Your Age, Volume Two: Original Stories about Growing up (Amy Ehrlich, ed.)
- The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups (David Wisniewski)
- James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl) *
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl) *
Audiobooks- Peter Pan (BBC Radio Presents) (Random House Audio)
- Peter and the Starcatchers (Audiobook CD) (Brilliance Audio)
- James and the Giant Peach (Audiobook CD) (Puffin Books)
PoemsInformational Texts
Biographies
- J.M. Barrie: The Magic Behind Peter Pan (Susan Bivin Aller)
Autobiographies- Boy: Tales of Childhood (Roald Dahl) (EA) *
Articles- “Peter Pan’s early years” (Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today, 9/1/2004)
- “Prequel to Peter Pan fills in the blanks with fun” (Sue Corbett, Miami Herald, No Date)
Additional ResourcesArt, Music, and Media
Music
- Moose Charlap and Carolyn Leigh, “I Won’t Grow Up” (1954)
Note: This song is from Peter Pan the musical, and the version in which Cathy Rigby sings the part of Peter is recommended.Media
6-2 Literary Texts—Folklore: A Blast From the Past
Stories
Greece/Ancient World
- Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the ‘Iliad’ (Rosemary Sutcliff) (E)
- Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths (Bernard Evslin) *
- The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1 (Rick Riordan) *
- Women Warriors: Myths and Legends of Heroic Women (Marianna Mayer and Heller Julek)
Rome- Roman Myths (Geraldine McCaughrean and Emma Chichester Clark)
Vikings- D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths (Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire)
Inuit-Eskimo- Tikta’Liktak: An Inuit-Eskimo Legend (James A. Houston)
Latin America- Golden Tales: Myths, Legends, and Folktales from Latin America (Lulu Delacre) (Note: This title also includes informational text.)
General- Favorite Folktales from Around the World (Jane Yolen) *
- The Firebird and Other Russian Fairy Tales (Arthur Ransome)
- Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling) (EA)*
- Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale (Robert D. San Souci, Brian Pinkney, and Jane Yolen)
- American Tall Tales (Mary Pope Osborne and Michael McCurdy) (EA) CHECKED TO HERE
Poems- "Twelfth Song of Thunder" (Navajo, Traditional) (E)
Audiobooks- Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling) (Harper Collins)
- The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1 (Rick Riordan and Jesse Bernstein) (Listening Library)
Informational TextsInformational Text
Ancient World
- The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History (Jane Bingham)
Greece- The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug For Troy (Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd)
- Greeks Internet Linked (Illustrated World History) (Susan Peach, Anne Millard, and Ian Jackson)
- You Wouldn’t Want to be a Slave in Ancient Greece!: A Life You’d Rather Not Have (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series)(Fiona MacDonald, David Salariya, and David Antram)
Rome- Romans: Internet Linked (Illustrated World History) (Anthony Marks)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Live in Pompeii! A Volcanic Eruption You’d Rather Avoid (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (John Malam, David Salariya, and David Antram)
- You Wouldn’t Want to be a Roman Soldier!: Barbarians You’d Rather Not Meet (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (David Stewart and David Antram)
Vikings- First Facts about the Vikings (Jacqueline Morley)
- Vicious Vikings (Horrible Histories TV Tie-in) (Terry Deary and Martin Brown)
- You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Viking Explorer!: Voyages You’d Rather Not Make (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (Andrew Langley, David Salariya, and David Antram)
Inuit-Eskimo- The Inuit (Watts Library) (Suzanne M. Williams)
- Building an Igloo (Ulli Steltzer)
Latin America6-3 Literary Texts—Embracing Heritage
Stories
- One More River to Cross: The Stories of Twelve Black Americans (Scholastic Biography) (Jim Haskins) (EA)
- As Long as the Rivers Flow: The Stories of Nine Native Americans (Scholastic Biography) (Paula Gunn Allen and Patricia Clark Smith)
- Esperanza Rising (Pam Munoz Ryan)
- Project Mulberry (Linda Sue Park)
- Weedflower (Cynthia Kadohata)
- Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy (Andrea Warren)
- “On Discovering America” (Pearl S. Buck) (Survey Graphic Magazine)
- One Eye Laughing, the Other Eye Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss, Vienna, Austria to New York, 1938 (Dear America Series) (Barry Denenberg)
- Something About America (Maria Testa)
- Journey of the Sparrows( Fran Leeper Buss)
- Behind the Mountain (First Person Fiction) (Edwidge Danticat)
- An Indian in Cowboy Country: Stories from an Immigrant’s Life (Pradeep Anand)
LyricsInformational Texts
Informational Text
Easy Books for Building Background Knowledge
- Coming To America: The Story of Immigration (Betsy Maestro and Suzannah Ryan)
- If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island (If You[r]…Series) (Ellen Levine and Wayne Parmenter)
General- A History of US: Reconstructing America 1865-1890 (Book 7) (Joy Hakim) (EA)
- How People Immigrate (Scholastic, A True Book) (Sarah De Capua)
- Immigrant Kids (Russell Freedman)(EA)
- New Kids in Town: Oral Histories of Immigrant Teens (Scholastic Biography) (Janet Bode)
- First Crossing: Stories about Teen Immigrants (Donald R. Gallo)
Genealogy- Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors: A Step-by-Step Guide to Uncovering Your Family’s History (Maureen Alice Taylor)
- Do People Grow on Family Trees?: Genealogy for Kids and Other Beginners, The official Ellis Island Handbook (Ira Wolfman and Michael Klein)
Informational Text (Read Aloud)6-4 Literary Texts—Courageous Characters
Stories
General
- The Power of Light: Eight Stories for Hanukkah (Isaac Bashevis Singer and Irene Lieblich) (EA)
- Fire from the Rock (Sharon M. Draper)
- War Comes to Willy Freeman (James and Christopher Collier) [easier to read but excellent]
- Baseball Saved Us (Ken Mochizuki and Dom Lee) [easier to read but excellent]
Slavery/Overcoming It- "The People Could Fly" (Virginia Hamilton and Leo and Diane Dillon) (E)
- Free at Last!: Stories and Songs of Emancipation (Doreen Rappaport and Shane W. Evans)
Asia- The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks (Katherine Paterson and Leo and Diane Dillon) (E)
- Sign of the Chrysanthemum (Katherine Paterson and Peter Landa) (EA)
- Kira-Kira (Cynthia Kadohata)
- Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution (Ji-Li Jiang)
- Under the Blood-Red Sun (Graham Salisbury)
Shipwrecks- SOS Titanic (Eve Bunting)
- Timothy of the Cay (Theodore Taylor)
- Shipwreck Season (Donna Hill)
Child Labor- Uprising: Three Young Women Caught in the Fire That Changed America (Margaret Peterson Haddix)
- Lyddie (Katherine Paterson) (EA)
- Counting on Grace (Elizabeth Winthrop)
- The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (Francisco Jiménez)
- Iqbal (Francesco D’Adamo)
PoemsInformational Texts
Informational Text
General
- Kids with Courage: True Stories About Young People Making a Difference (Barbara A. Lewis)
Slavery/Overcoming It- Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad (Ann Petry) (E)
- //Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself// (Frederick Douglass) (E)
- Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts (Patricia C. and Frederick L. McKissack)
- Leon’s Story (Leon Walter Tillage and Susan L. Roth)
- Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom (Companion to The People Could Fly) (Virginia Hamilton and Leo and Diane Dillon)
Asia- Samurai: Warlords of Japan (High Interest Books) (Arlan Dean)
- Life in Ancient Japan (Peoples of the Ancient World) (Hazel Richardson)
- Text about the Cultural Revolution (forthcoming)
Shipwrecks- A Night to Remember: A Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic (Walter Lord) (E)
- You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Titanic!: One Voyage You'd Rather Not Make (You Wouldn’t Want To…Series) (David Evelyn Stewart, David Salariya, and David Antram)
- Exploring the Titanic: How the Greatest Ship Ever Lost—Was Found (Robert D. Ballard)
- Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance (Jennifer Armstrong)
Child Labor- Kids On Strike! (Susan Campbell Bartoletti)
- Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor (Russell Freedman and Lewis Hine) (EA)
Informational Text (Read Aloud)Art, Music, and Media
Music
6-5 Literary Texts—Figure It Out
Stories
Math
- The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin)
- G is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book (David M. Schwartz and Marissa Moss)
MysteriesPrecedent
- The Mysterious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)
- Three Act Tragedy (Agatha Christie)
Contemporary- 39 Clues series (Rick Riordan)
- The Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Lee Stewart and Carson Ellis)
- The Name of this Book is Secret (Secret Series) (Pseudonymous Bosch)
- Chasing Vermeer (Blue Balliet and Brett Helquist)
Poems- "Jabberwocky" (Lewis Carroll) (E)
- Math Talk: Mathematical Ideas in Poems for Two Voices (Theoni Pappas)
- Poetry for Young People: Edward Lear (Edward Lear, Edward Mendelson, ed., and Laura Huliska-Beith)
- Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Allen Poe, Brod Bagert, ed., and Carolynn Cobleigh)
AudiobooksInformational Texts
Informational Text
- The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure (Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Rotraut Susanne Berner, and Michael Henry Heim, trans.) (E)
- Go Figure!: A Totally Cool Book About Numbers (Johnny Ball)
- The $1.00 Word Riddle Book (Marilyn Burns and Martha Weston)
Picture BooksProblem Solving in Math
Art, Music, and Media
Art
6-6 Literary Texts—Winging It
Stories
- Dragonwings (Lawrence Yep) (E)
- First to Fly: How Wilbur and Orville Wright Invented the Airplane (Peter Busby)
- Flight (Robert Burleigh)
Poetry- I Am the Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices (Paul Fleischman)
Picture Book (Used as an introduction to this unit)Informational Texts
Biographies
- Sterling Biographies: The Wright Brothers: First in Flight (Tara Dixon-Engel)
- Wilbur & Orville Wright: Taking Flight (Stephanie Sammartino McPherson)
- The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane (Russell Freedman)
- Charles A. Lindbergh: A Human Hero (James Giblin)
- William Boeing: Builder of Planes (Sharlene Nelson)
- Amelia Earhart (DK Biography) (Tanya Stone)
- Up In the Air: The Story of Bessie Coleman (Philip S. Hart)
General Nonfiction- Flying Free: America's First Black Aviators (Phillip S. Hart)
- Fantastic Flights: One Hundred Years of Flying on the Edge (Patrick O'Brien)
- Black Eagles: African Americans in Aviation (James Haskins)
- Strange And Wonderful Aircraft (Harvey Weiss)
Science